New user question: how to manually set a cylinder length

SketchUp Pro
1

Brand new to this tool, spent about an hour playing with it and reading the help center but I couldn’t find the answer. It’s probably really easy, I just can’t find it because I’m using this for the first time.

I’m trying to set the length of a simple cylinder. I figured out how to identify the dimensions using the Dimensions tool and I figured out how to scale it using the Scale tool. However the scale tool only allows me to manually drag it using my mouse, which is a pain to repeat for every new length I want. I imagine there must be a way for me to type in a specific length, the same way I can type in a specific radius for a circle, but I just can’t figure out how to do that.

As a note, I eventually scaled it to the specific length I wanted, but I’d like to know how to do this better for the future.

2

With the Scale tool you could start scaling its length and then type in the final length including the units. No pain that way.

cylinder
cylinder837×658 245 KB

Or if you know the length of the cylinder before you start to extrude it, just make it that long when you use Push/Pull.

Might want to spend some time going through the SketchUp Fundamentals here: https://learn.sketchup.com/

1 Like
3

Thanks! Wow that link should be front and center in the help center website, don’t know why it’s not.

So the videos show that I can type a measurement directly while starting to create objects so that helps. However I haven’t been able to find out how to open little sub windows like you have in your example showing a “Measurements” window for the scale tool. I’m sure I can keep watching the videos in the link you showed me though. Regardless, being able to type in specific dimensions upon item creation is very useful already.

Thanks!

4

That little measurements window should be built into your application window. Is it not in the lower right and you haven’t noticed it?

5

That Measurements window isn’t specific to the Scale tool. Normally the Measurements window is in the bottom right corner of the screen. I moved it up into the model space to make it easier to see for that GIF using View>Toolbars.

That window is used for all numeric input for any of the tools in SketchUp. Remember not to click in the window. There’s never any reason to click in it.